Virginia Voter Registration Website Crashes Before Deadline

Published at 12:23 PM EDT on Oct 18, 2016

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AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 19: A pollster loads paper in a primary registration machine at the Travis County Courthouse February 19, 2008 in Austin, Texas. Early voting begins today across Texas ahead of the presidential primaries taking place on Tuesday, March 4, 2008. (Photo by Ben Sklar/Getty Images)

Virginia's online voter registration portal faced technical difficulties on the last day to register to vote.

The Virginia Department of Elections' online voter registration system slowed down Monday and at times became completely unresponsive.

Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Edgardo Cortes says the department was overwhelmed by the record number of people trying to register by the Monday night deadline.

The department said in an online statement that it made changes to the website to allow voters to meet the deadline. People who were having trouble registering were encouraged to wait a few minutes and try again.